Flexible hoses that transfer flowing bulk product between a transport tank carried on a truck or rail car for transport and a storage container or another transport tank tend to be large in both length and girth relative to the size of human hands. Such hoses also tend to be rather heavy and must be dragged along the ground between connection points or lifted onto a dolly for such transport. In so doing, a worker sometimes can lose sight of the fact that sections of the hose are bending beyond their desired bend radius limitations, thereby inadvertently damaging the hose. Thus, when preparing for the loading or unloading of bulk product, workers can encounter difficulty when maneuvering such hoses into position for connection to the bottom of the tanks carried by bulk transport vehicles. Such difficulties can manifest themselves in the extended time needed to accomplish these tasks and in the risk of injury to the workers trying to accomplish these tasks. When not in use, such hoses can become entangled, giving rise to undesirable kinks that reduce the useful life of the hose. Moreover, when not in use, such hoses can pose a tripping hazard to workers in the area devoted to loading and unloading the bulk product. While encasing such hoses within a series of pivotally connected rigid cylindrical conduits might seem effective to eliminate some of drawbacks noted above, having to thread the hose through these conduits is in itself so time-consuming, difficult and likely to damage the hose in the process as to render such apparatus into a false cure that is worse than the disease.
The accompanying drawings, which are incorporated in and constitute a part of this specification, illustrate at least one presently preferred embodiment of the invention as well as some alternative embodiments. These drawings, together with the written description, serve to explain the principles of the invention but by no means are intended to be exhaustive of all of the possible manifestations of the invention.